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A LifeStyle Blog

Month: January 2017

Welcome to my first blog post. This is all about applying to study medicine at Cambridge, and consists of advice based on my experience of (successfully) applying here.

The video above contains detailed advice, but for those of you who prefer to whizz through a quick text post, I’ve summarised key points below.

When applying to a university, especially somewhere like Cambridge, for a degree like medicine, make sure it’s somewhere you will be happy to be! Medicine is a long and hard course, and you’re limited on your number of applications (just 4!) so make each one count by making informed decisions.

Prepare! Medicine is incredibly competitive, so to stand out you need to have long history of things like work experience, volunteering, and extracurricular activities that help you build those key characteristics we look for in doctors: Leadership skills, empathy, the ability to work well in teams, to work well under pressure etc. etc.etc.

Make your personal statement unique by highlighting what has drawn you personally to medicine. This will allow you to demonstrate your commitment to a course (and career) that requires you to apply yourself fully.

Avoid shelling out hundreds of pound on BMAT, or how to get into medical school/Oxbridge courses. A lot of this information can be found online, or on open days, and there isn’t clear-cut formula anyway!

Getting ready for your BMAT does not need to be stressful! Practice using example papers you can find online, or in second books widely available on eBay and Amazon.

The main way you can prepare yourself for those infamously crazy Cambridge interviews is to feel confident! Unfortunately, you are unlikely to be asked questions that you know the answer to, or have prepared beforehand, so memorising perfect answers for questions is unlikely to be helpful. Instead, get used to chatting to teachers one on one, and explaining, or even defending, your ideas. Also, make sure you know everything you have claimed to know in you personal statement and application; the last thing you want is to be exposed as a liar in an interview!